Some people just don’t get it.Folks in Detroit fall into that category. At this week’s North American International Auto Show in Detroit, hybrids, h-cars, and electric vehicles will once again take a back seat to the traditional, gas-burning vehicles that have dominated the world since the 1920s.

According to Wired.com, the showstoppers should be Audi’s R8 diesel concept, pioneered on Lemans raceways, and the turbo-charged, 4-cylinder Ford Explorer America, due to start production in 2010. Both Audi’s diesel engine and Ford’s Ecoboost are touted as “the engines of the future” because they’re both more efficient and cleaner.

Imagine if they’d started this process in the 1980s.

For gaso-philes, don’t worry. There will be plenty of horsepower on display, as well, including Chevy’s 620 hp Corvette ZR-1, Audi’s 500 hp V-12 R8, and Hyundai’s 350 hp V-8 Genesis, leading some critics (like me) to call the show “an old-school exercise in automotive pornography.” What is clear, though, is that the auto industry is convinced it can baby-step its way to a cleaner future.